


Confrontations

by Aerileah



Series: The Bracken Trails [5]
Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: Fern Survived, Gen, Overprotective Big Brother, Overprotective little sister, Raksura AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27465523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerileah/pseuds/Aerileah
Summary: Fern thought of all the ways she'd seen groundlings vie for status or material belongings - anything from snide comments to public challenges to outright physical attacks. She supposed everything at the colony so far wasn't too different from what she'd seen all her life, except... Everything came together for her, finally."Except this time we're in the middle of it and we can't just fly away," she said. Moon clasped her hand in his and squeezed gently.
Series: The Bracken Trails [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913620
Comments: 12
Kudos: 22





	1. The Talk

When Fern dropped to the paved tiles in the teacher’s court, she shifted to her softskinned form. Moon’s nostrils flared. “Where’s Stone?” she asked. 

“He’s still with Pearl, their reigning queen,” Moon said, his brows furrowed down at her. “Flower offered us a place to rest, and some clothes,” he added. Flower, Chime, and the other Arbora were still in the common area, trying very hard to look like they weren’t watching Fern and Moon talk. 

Fern bit her lip.

“I told her we didn’t need them, but she’s insisting."

Fern nodded, thinking of Jade’s request and how it would look for him to meet the queen in his ragged and threadbare clothes. She was relieved Jade had only seen her grimey scales and not the state of her clothes. “All right, that sounds good,” she decided. 

Moon’s eyebrows shot up, and he took a sharp breath in. “Who did you meet up there?” he asked. 

Fern realized he must smell Jade’s scent on her. She picked at the dirt under her nails. “Jade. The queen,” she admitted.

Moon stiffened. His gaze snapped up to the opening up on the atrium wall, and his nostrils flared again. “What did she - did she do--?”

Fern shook her head hurriedly, reaching to clasp his wrist. “We only talked. Whatever it is that queens do to stop shifting, she didn’t do it to me. She wants to meet you.” Moon twitched, and looked down at her. Fern shrugged. “She’s not what I expected.” 

“Fern, Moon, is everything all right?” Flower called from where she stood with Chime in the common room. 

“Yes,” Fern called back, trying to keep her voice cheerful, and tugged Moon back toward them. 

***

Bell and Petal took them both down a several sets of stairs that led to the living quarters - the bowers - and stopped at a series of vaulted, half-lit chambers where pools of water were fed with water wheels. Bell explained the water wheels supplied fountains throughout the colony. The different pools in the bathing chamber were warmed by hot stones spelled by the mentors to put off heat.

There were fluffy towels and oil soap and hot water and Fern hadn’t felt so luxurious in turns. She ferociously scrubbed her and Moon’s clothes, grimacing at the weak seams and unraveling threads, then laid their clothes to dry on a rack. She carefully cleaned the cord she’d gotten from Euga in the Serican camp and hung it to dry as well. There was a group of Raksura on the far end of the chamber, three Arbora - teachers, she guessed - trying to wrangle five giggling and splashing children into cleanliness. 

After soaping himself down, and letting Fern scrub his back, Moon submerged in a pool until only his eyes and nose were left above water. Fern washed her hair, and washed it a second time, then found a small pot with a creamy substance that made it easy for her to finger-comb the tangles. She slipped into Moon’s pool to soak her aching muscles, settling on a ledge inset on the wall of the pool.

Fern took the time to braid her hair, reveling in the feel of the clean strands in her fingertips. Their clothes were mostly dry when Petal returned, but she offered them each a robe, the fabric so finely woven it caught in the callouses on Ferns’ fingertips. Fern’s robe was red with yellow embroidery, and Moon’s was black lined with a dark blue. Petal led them up to a higher level with a long hall that had a series of open doorways, some of which were curtained off with long fabric drapes. 

“It’s all teachers in these bowers,” Petal said. She gestured to one of the doorways. “This one isn’t in use and no one will bother you.” Fern eagerly ducked through the doorway while Petal gently urged Moon in. 

A narrow set of stairs greeted Fern on the other side of the curtain, leading up to a small room. Covered baskets lined the walls of the room, and a large, open topped basket-like structure hung from the ceiling. Fern shifted and climbed up a wall to look inside the hanging basket. It was lined with blankets and cushions, and she realized it was a bed, big enough for two or three people. 

There was large gap at the top of the exterior wall of the room where it would normally meet the ceiling, allowing free airflow. The gap was large enough that Moon could even climb out. Moon came up the stairs two at a time, looked around the room, then ducked back down the stairs. She knew he was exploring the long corridor and air shafts below for quick exits and defensible positions. She looked at the open gap in the wall and thought there probably weren’t many defensible places in the whole colony. 

The bed swayed a little as she climbed in. She shifted back to her softskinned form, stifling a yawn with one hand. Moon came back up the stairs and paused when he reached the room. She lifted a hand above the edge of the basket-bed and made a lazy wave. Moon chuckled, then climbed into the bed with her. 

“This is… hmmm,” he observed, tucking himself around her as she wriggled down under a blanket. 

“It’s the most comfortable bed in the entire Three Worlds,” Fern sighed, and fell asleep. 

***

Fern woke up slowly, and rolled to tuck herself more firmly against her brother. Then she realized she was in bed alone and sat upright, her heart pounding. “I’m here,” Moon said softly from the floor. Fern shuddered and ran her hands through her unraveling braid, trying to calm her shaking fingers. She shook her hair out, pleased at the gentle waves made by sleeping with her wet hair in a braid. It was after sundown, and the room was gently lit by a few patches of glowing moss. 

She looked over the edge of the bed and saw a stranger. She blinked, and realized it was Moon. He sat on a cushion, a bundle of fabric in his lap. His hair was a little ruffled, but not tangled or messy, and she realized the exhausted creases under his eyes had relaxed. He looked completely different from when they’d lived with the Cordans. He wore a pair of dark blue pants and a long-sleeve shirt, the hems and collar of the shirt decorated with lines of gray thread in flowing patterns. 

“Petal brought some clothes for you,” he said. Fern climbed down from the basket and caught a scent of unfamiliar Raksura. 

“Anything happen while I was asleep?” she asked. 

Moon shrugged. “I went down to the hall a few minutes ago. Two warriors challenged me. They left when some teachers wandered by.”

“Don’t want witnesses when they bully the fragile consort and his pet Arbora?” she sneered. Moon tried to hold in a snort, and failed. She smacked him on the shoulder gently and changed into the new clothes. They were also dark, but more purple than blue, accented with periwinkle thread. The pants were in a style she wasn’t used to, high waisted and loose in the legs, with hems that cinched around her ankles with ribbon drawstrings. She liked the way they felt. The shirt was sturdy, the sleeves extending too long past her wrists, so she rolled them up to her forearms. 

When she was ready, Moon announced, “I’m hungry.” 

Fern smiled. "Here’s hoping that’s normal for Raksura and there’s a third day-meal." It was certainly normal for Moon to be hungry after a nap, but this was the first she'd be able to compare his appetite with others of their own kind.

They went down the stairs, Moon leading the way, and headed back up toward the teacher’s court. Moon froze on the last set of curving stairs before the teacher’s common room, just out of sight of any occupants inside. He reached back and caught Fern’s wrist, tapping twice with one finger. She stopped and listened carefully. 

Stone was saying, “I meant the colony. Is there any one of you who won’t admit there’s something wrong here? That there has been for the past forty turns? We’ve had dead clutches, fewer births--”

“But that just happens--” another voice protested. 

“That doesn’t just happen--” Stone snapped. 

Fern thought of bad luck, of the tragedies Jade had rattled off like a list of symptoms in a bad malady. She pulled her attention back to the voices in the other room.

“--each sister queen could take three or four and go off to build her own court. That’s what they’re doing at Star Aster. Why do you think none of them would come with me?” 

Someone said, “If their mentors told them this place was ill-omened--” 

“Pearl’s thinking of treating with the Fell,” Chime said, managing to sound exasperated and dry at the same time. “I’d call that ill-omened.” 

Flower’s tired voice interjected, “Stone, I’ve looked and looked. All the mentors have looked, alone and in concert. We can’t find anything wrong, no matter what we try.” 

Fern forced herself to take a slow, quiet breath through her nose as Stone said, “And?” 

“I think whatever it is must be hidden very carefully,” Flower finally admitted. 

A new voice, male, low and rough, said, “Speaking for the soldiers, I’m not against leaving. Whether it’s a bad omen or something else, this place hasn’t been good to us for a long time. But what is Pearl going to say?” 

“The fact we’re having this talk without her says a lot, doesn’t it?” Chime said, sounding more uneasy than ironic. 

“I’ll handle Pearl,” Stone said. Fern wrinkled her nose at that, not entirely believing his overconfidence. 

Someone sighed. Fern thought it might be Flower. 

“I know you want her to give way to Jade,” Flower said. “But Jade has to take that responsibility herself. You can’t do it for her.” 

The person who had spoken for the soldiers interjected into the uncomfortable pause, “I think we all agree it would be good if Jade took the court. But not with a consort we don’t know.” 

“What, exactly, did you think I was going to Star Aster for, Knell?” Stone said, an edge to his voice. Fern swallowed an amused snort, clenching her jaw tight to keep her reactions bottled. 

Knell, apparently the leader of the soldiers, said, “He’s not from Star Aster. He’s a feral solitary you picked up along the way. And the Arbora with him--” 

Petal’s voice was uncharacteristically fierce. “They aren’t feral. They may have been living with groundlings, but they weren’t eating them. They’re orphans who have been looking for other Raksura for over thirty turns.” 

“Living with groundlings isn’t exactly a point in their favor either--” Knell grumbled. 

Flower cut him off sharply. “Knell, the mentors and teachers in this room have spoken to them. You haven’t. You may want to reserve your opinion until you have something to base it on.” 

Yet another uncomfortable pause followed. Fern wondered if all conversations were like this. Her teeth were starting to ache, but she didn’t trust herself to stay quiet if she relaxed. 

“And how do you know Pearl isn’t going to want him herself?” Chime asked. Fern tried to hold in the angry snarl building in her chest. “I mean, he’s beautiful," Chime continued, "and if she takes a consort--”

Stone interrupted Chime - and Fern’s anger. “She’s three times his age and not so lost to sense she’d try to take a young consort against his or his foster-clutchmate’s will.” 

Flower cleared her throat suddenly. “And they’re here.” 

She must have caught their scent, or heard the start of Fern’s growl. Moon didn’t hesitate, pushing against the wall and walking into the room. Fern followed belatedly, feeling clumsy and ungainly. The room was much fuller than she realized, with people seated all around, leaning in doorways, and crowded in from the atrium. All of them stared at Moon and Fern, clearly flustered by their sudden appearance. Moon faced Stone directly. “Why this reaction?” he asked, his voice sounding choked. Fern thought back to when they’d learned about Moon’s status as a consort, when Stone asked that very same question. 

Stone expression didn’t change. He glanced at Fern and returned his steady gaze to Moon. “We need to talk in private,” he said. There was a confused stir as the watchers made way for Stone as we walked into the atrium. Fern caught Moon’s wrist before he could get too far ahead of her, and followed them out. Stone shifted and began to climb the atrium wall. She and Moon shifted in tandem, and she stepped into the circle of his arms. 

“Do you want to talk to him alone?” she asked quietly. She reached up and tapped his cheek twice. 

“Together,” Moon said, lifting her and pressing his forehead to hers for a brief moment. 

"Together," she promised, situating herself with a good grip on his collar flange. Moon jumped for the wall of the atrium and followed Stone up and out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying a new kind of summary at the beginning of each work in the series. If you go back through Sky-Island, Tower, Journey, and Colony, you'll see those updated, but I haven't made any changes to the actual works. The summaries might not perfectly match up with what happens in the works, but I'll be using them as a guide for tone.
> 
> We're officially caught up to what I've already completed writing, so I gotta get my typing fingers moving to get ahead of the Sunday posting schedule again.


	2. The Song

Stone and Moon landed on one of the hills across the other side of the river. The crescent moon hung low in the sky, partly obscured by clouds, but it was bright enough to cast light on a rough circle of flat stones on the top of the hill. Stone shifted to groundling, then sat on one of the rocks. He moved slowly. Fern wondered if he'd slept yet - she certainly hadn't seen him sleep since before they found the devastation at Sky Copper.

The night air was cool and Fern was glad for the new clothes. A chill breeze flowed over the crest of the hill, raising the hairs on her forearms. She rolled her sleeves down to cover her wrists and tucked her hair behind her ears. Moon stood stiff and straight next to her, his eyes boring into the side of Stone's face. Stone just looked out over the valley. Fern followed his gaze. The pyramid was brightly lit from within, the glow from hundreds of gaps, windows and doorways shining out and reflecting off the river. 

Stone said, "I meant to tell you the whole story at Sky Copper, but I changed my mind. You've had enough uncertainties over the turns, and I couldn't promise anything. But needed you - both of you - to come here with me."

Some of the tension dropped from Moon's stiff shoulders. Fern waited. She didn't feel this conversation was for her, or at least not mostly for her. 

"Will Fern get training as a mentor, or are solitaries excluded?" Moon asked. His voice was calm, level. Fern looked at him in shock, but he didn't acknowledge her.

Stone said firmly, "You aren't solitaries. Not like that. Flower has agreed to train Fern, and Jade--" 

Moon cut Stone off, "We've already been told to leave. I've been told to leave." He folded his arms over his chest. 

Stone sighed, but not in that exasperated tone Fern was used to. He just looked tired. "By a warrior called River?" Moon twitched, but kept his arms folded. "That was a guess," Stone continued. "I told you about royal clutches. Sometimes they're all male and the warrior fledglings have an attitude. River was from a clutch of Pearl's sister queen." Stone’s voice turned caustic. "I don't solicit River's opinion, no matter how much he thinks I ought to."

An eerie sound rose across the distance from the pyramid, a chorus of notes high and low. Fern realized the sound was a wave of voices, complex and interweaving. A high, sweet note twined through them all, supporting the melody. It felt off. It didn't feel quite right, like a string instrument out of tune. She felt a shiver travel down her spine. Her feet were rooted in place. 

"They're singing," Stone said softly, jarring Fern from her reverie. "Arbora to Aeriat and back again." The strong, high voice lifted into the sky again and Stone added, "That's Jade. Pearl doesn't sing anymore." 

The song was alien. It wasn't hers; it was missing something. Fern wondered if it could become hers, if it could ever resonate in her bones in a way that felt right and good. A prickling itch of sweat settled at her hairline and the small of her back. 

Moon glanced at Fern, clearly uncomfortable. He stepped closer to Stone and lowered his voice. "I don't belong here," he said. Fern reached to grab his wrist, but he turned his back toward her. 

Fern couldn't see Stone, but she heard his derision. "You're afraid you don't belong here. There's a difference."

The song from the colony settled into a slower, quieter rhythm and the sounds of the jungle wildlife rose ever so slightly around them. "We've been walking into new places our whole lives," Moon said, his voice low. "I know what it feels like when one of us doesn't belong."

"And you think I belong?" Fern interjected, feeling heat travel up her cheeks. "Did you suddenly forget I'm--"

"Fern," Moon gently interrupted, a crack in his voice. 

Fern swallowed her words. 

Stone said wryly, "You've been here half a day, and you were asleep for most of that."

“I like to make quick decisions,” Moon said through gritted teeth.

Stone levered himself to his feet with a groan. "All I ask is that you stay until I convince Pearl to give way. I want this court to leave the colony and return to the home forest in the west. The court won't agree to it unless we have at least a prospective consort for Jade. Once we have a secure colony, we'll be in a better position to get a consort to come over from another court." His voice turned grim. "It won't take long. Things will come to a head soon."

"What, are you saying you wouldn’t keep us here?” Moon asked. 

Stone chuckled, but the sound was humorless. "We all know you two can get away from me if you put your minds to it. I'm not going to keep you here. Even if I was that stupid the Arbora wouldn't stand for it. Besides, the court needs consorts, not a prisoner."

Fern wondered what, exactly, Stone wasn't saying. He wanted more than just Moon staying until Pearl gave way. He wanted Moon for Jade. He wanted Moon to go with them to the new colony. She couldn't see Stone around the bulk of Moon's body. 

“What about the Fell?” Moon asked. 

“The place of the Raksura in the Three Worlds is to kill Fell.” Stone’s voice was deadly serious, but Fern saw Moon tilt his head in that particular way he did when he was confused. Stone continued, “They’re predators, just like Tath, Ghobin, a hundred others. We should be hunting them, not the other way around. After Pearl’s reign, we don’t have a lot of allies except for Sky Copper. I’d been talking to their reigning queen about combining with us.” 

Fern sucked in a breath. That’s what Stone had wanted to do when they stopped at Sky Copper. And the Fell had destroyed the court before--

Moon’s voice broke into her racing thoughts as he said, “Then someone warned the Fell you wanted to join with Sky Copper.”

Fern asked, “Someone here?” 

“I thought of that too.” Stone’s voice held an edge now. “So. You staying?” 

Moon looked at Fern over his shoulder. She met his eyes, stepped up next to him, and rested one hand on the small of his back. She tapped twice, gently, with her fingertips. Moon’s gaze drifted to the colony. He let out a quiet breath. “I’ll let you use me for this. We’ll stay. And Fern gets the training she needs. But I won’t promise anything afterward.” 

Amusement sparkled in Stone’s eyes. “We’ll see,” he said. “Maybe you’ll make another quick decision.” 

Fern scowled. “Why is it so important I get training?” she snapped. “Am I going to burst into flames or something?” 

Stone met her eyes and raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t considered what would happen if you have an augury at a bad time? Say, in the middle of a bunch of groundlings?”

She snarled at him, shifted and stamped to the edge of the hill. She looked down at the colony, so quiet and fragile in the darkness. 

Moon stepped behind her and lifted her gently. He hissed at Stone over his shoulder, a defiant gesture that ended up being more petulant than what he probably intended. For that matter, Fern had acted more petulantly than she’d meant. Heat rose in her cheeks again, but this time it wasn’t in anger. 

***

Moon flew them both back to the colony while Fern chewed the inside of her cheek to distract herself from the gnawing tension in her stomach. The song wasn’t nearly as loud or penetrating as before. She couldn’t tell if fewer Raksura were singing or if they were simply singing more quietly. Moon landed on a ledge away from the teachers’ court and indicated an air shaft. Fern climbed down, turning at junctions as Moon indicated direction with taps to the stiff spade shape on the end of her tail.

The hall outside their room was empty, and they shifted back to their softskinned forms. Moon went up the steps into their little room first, but paused on the top step. Fern heard him take a deep breath, and she breathed in as well. She smelled the distinctive scent of Jade, the daughter queen. Moon continued into the room, looking around at the baskets and the bed suspiciously. Everything looked the same at first, then Fern realized there was a bundle on top of Moon’s clothes where he’d stacked them on a basket. The bundle was a roll of dark blue fabric, matching the shade of Moon’s loaned robe. 

Moon glanced at Fern and she shrugged. “You smell that?” he asked. She nodded briefly. Moon tentatively poked at the bundle of cloth, and Fern rolled her eyes. “Stop that,” he said. 

“What?” Fern said. “You weren’t looking even at me.” 

“I know you rolled your eyes,” Moon grumbled. 

Fern sighed, then reached past him for the bundle. “What is it?” She managed to get one hand on it before Moon snatched it from her. 

“Dont,” he said irritably. “What if it’s--” The bundle unrolled a little in his hands, revealing a glimpse of what was wrapped inside. He slowly unrolled it the rest of the way. Inside was a belt of dark, butter-soft leather, tooled with red in a curling pattern, the buckles a matching red gold. Attached was a similarly decorated sheath with a knife, the hilt fashioned of carved horn. Moon pulled the knife out and admired the blade. Fern didn’t recognize the material, but it didn’t look like metal. Moon turned it in his hands, and Fern bit her lip as she watched him. The knife was even finer than the set he’d traded for at the Karthas forge, and he’d spend months and months saving up pelts for the two knives he’d gotten there. 

She remembered telling Jade that Moon would prefer a gift that was useful, but this was both useful and breathtakingly beautiful. Moon’s gaze met Fern’s and he sheathed the knife with a snap. He rewrapped the blanket around the knife, and pushed past Fern. He walked halfway down the stairs, set the knife on a step, and walked back up, not meeting her eyes. 

“Moon?” she asked, “What are you doing?” 

“I’m not going to accept a - gift, bribe, whatever - without knowing--” he let out his breath explosively. He clenched his hands into fists and glared at the ceiling. 

Fern felt like she’d been punched in the gut. They didn’t know what it meant to accept a gift like this. They knew hardly anything. Fern thought of when Stone told them Raksuran queens could dispose of their consorts if they were “incompatible,” and Moon didn’t have a birth court to return to. 

Fern rubbed her forehead, “Sorry, I--” she sighed, “I’m sorry, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking.” She stepped forward and put her arms around Moon’s waist in a gentle hug. She made sure to rest her palms on either side of his spine, so he could pull away if he needed. He dipped his head down, resting his cheek on her hair. She could feel him trembling slightly.

“You think Stone will tell this Jade that I’ll cooperate, that this isn’t necessary?” he asked. Fern was suddenly reminded of a time long ago, a moment in their lives when everything was chaos and pain and nightmares, when she took care of Moon and not the other way around.

“If he doesn’t, I will,” she promised. She stepped back, and smiled reassuringly. “You still hungry? I’ll go down and get us some bread and we can eat in that ridiculously comfortable bed."

Moon still wasn’t meeting her eyes, but the edge of his mouth quirked up. “You’ll get crumbs in all the blankets."

“No I won’t,” Fern said, and skipped down the stairs. 

***

She managed to make it down to the teachers’ court without having to talk to anyone. A few Arbora did pass her in a stairwell that seemed to connect with much of the pyramid, but she pretended not to see them and didn’t look to see if they were staring at her. There were three people in the teachers’ court when she came in. They halted their conversation and were quiet as she collected a few loaves of bread and a few whole fruits into a small cloth. When she looked up, they were carefully not-looking at her. She knotted the cloth to create a makeshift bag and left. 

She heard them whisper quietly to one another as she took the stairs and wished they'd waited until she was completely out of earshot. She passed an Arbora on one of the landings before the bower-hallway, and the Arbora paused and shifted to stand aside. Fern tried to step around them hastily, but all she managed to do was move in a way that put her back in their path..

"I'm Bramble," a female voice said. Fern forced herself to look up. She looked like many of the other Arbora Fern had met, stocky and fair-haired. She wore a sleeveless shirt that displayed her muscled biceps and forearms "Is there, I mean, do you...?"

"Uh, sorry, I'm just going back to my - thanks," Fern said, and made for the bowers. She tried to make her gait look like a walk rather than a run, but she knew she hadn't succeeded.

She wasn’t sure if she preferred being invisible or if she preferred being overenthusiastically welcomed. It was easier with the Sericans, when there was a clear path to the sky and Euga had done most of the talking. These people - her people, she supposed - were so like and unlike what she’d daydreamed of as a child. She didn't know how she was supposed to act. As Jade had said, it was disorienting.

Moon had changed back into the robe and was sitting up in the basket bed, blinking drowsily by the time she made it back to their room. He’d always needed more sleep than her, and it had been a hard few days. She counted back, and realized it hadn’t even been two weeks since the Cordans staked them out to die. It felt like half a lifetime.

She climbed into the bed with Moon and spread a blanket on their laps to catch the crumbs. They ate everything, and she folded the blanket up and left it on the floor under the bed. She’d have to wash it later; they’d dripped fruit juice all over it. Moon curled up around her and was asleep in moments. She was awake for awhile longer, listening to the sound of the colony around them. She could hear the soft noises of sex and conversation from the nearby bowers, the chirps and screeches and other cacophony of wildlife out in the jungle, and the soft sound of the flowing water from the river and through the waterwheels in the colony. It was soothing and jarring, unfamiliar and wholly normal. She'd heard these sounds at the Cordans' camp and countless other settlements and towns over the turns.

Moon twitched restlessly in his sleep, and she stroked his hair soothingly. He sighed and his body stilled. Fern closed her eyes and let sleep sweep her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bramble makes a brief appearance in The Cloud Roads and plays a much larger role in Edge of Worlds and Harbors of the Sun. I didn’t expect her to be in this fic at all, but she is clever, spunky, and persistent.


End file.
